Brewer's: Hedge Priest

A poor or vagabond parson. The use of hedge for vagabond, or very inferior, is common: as hedge-mustard, hedge-writer (a Grubb Street author), hedge-marriage (a clandestine one), etc. Shakespeare uses the phrase, “hedge-born swain” as the very opposite of “gentle blood.” (1 Henry VI., iv. 1.)

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